


Jumping off the Railing

by ShadowsNDust



Category: One Piece
Genre: Adventure, Gen, I don't know how tags work, Self-Insert, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:20:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29302575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsNDust/pseuds/ShadowsNDust
Summary: A new life, one of adventure and thrill-seeking. 'Lana' will use her strange esoteric abilities to take herself, her ship, and her crew into places she'd never even imagined. And what a motley crew it promises to be.
Kudos: 10





	1. Introductions: Outside Perspective

It never really had a proper name. Usually, its kind named themselves after some nonsense like a feeling or a thing they liked. It hadn’t done so, not really seeing a point.

This was one of the many reasons its kind shunned it regularly. Not that it minded, on average its kind was a bit... dull, to put it mildly.

Sniffing the air in a snuffling fashion, it continued to lounge off to the side of a road, hidden by a clump of trees and thick brush. The gentle warm rays of an afternoon sun heating up its fur pleasantly, the light filtering through the overhanging branches full of leaves.

It snuffled again, the smalls of the forest and dirt road nearby filtering through, and a secondary smell on the breeze.

Sweat, flesh, treated dirty fabric.

It perked its small round ears up, and they picked out the sounds of a shuffling gate, someone walking but trying to be quiet and aware of their surroundings. Heavy footsteps, the crunch of dirt under a firm heel, a bipedal creature without a doubt.

There was a human walking down the road, one who was concerned and trying to be quiet.

Its snout snarled into a vicious grin. ‘Perfect.’

It rose up to its hind legs, balancing best as it could, and it reached out with one of its forelimbs to grip a large section of planks nailed together into the best approximation of a sign it could make.

Pulling the sign up, it examined the piece, looking for any breaks or flaws since it had last used it. Finding none, it tucked the sign under its forelimb and lumbered forward on three limbs in a slow lope.

Hearing that the human was now approaching its crop of trees it emerged from the brush, not bothering with a roar or any sort of obvious threat, even still the man on the road froze, sweating in pure terror as his eyes bulged out.

“B-B-B-B-B-Buh-Buh-Buh”

Snorting, it pulled the sign out and placed it on the ground in front of it, tapping a long claw against the markings on it.

“Grrall. Belly.”

His eyes darted from the poorly made sign, on one side a surprisingly well-drawn belly symbol, on the other a crude image of a person being torn to shreds by something with lots of teeth.

The large bear-like creature tapped the belly sign with a claw and then gave an approximation of a thumbs up.

“Belly.”

The man tried swallowing in fear, but his mouth had already run dry as the bear then tapped the picture of a man dying.

“Grr.”

It held out a thumbs down.

His entire body began to tremble as the form of a bear the size of a shed tapped the sign repeatedly.

“Gyah! Y-Y-You’re the Bandit Bear!”

“Gruhh?”

Humans always said things like that to it like the words meant something. Despite learning the human words, they still spoke so much nonsense. There was no need for such frivolous talking when its meaning was clear as day.

It tapped a claw against the belly sign, then the mauling picture, alternating between the two adamantly.

It thought its message was perfectly clear, giving it his Belly was good, getting mauled was bad. Therefore, give Belly. Then again, humans were often very dull-witted and slow to understand basic concepts. If it didn’t want the glorious shiny Belly so much it wouldn’t even bother.

The man’s knees were apparently so weak, just like the rest of his flabby spindly body, that they were shaking to support his weight, and he abruptly fell over. It dragged a paw down its face in second-hand embarrassment for him.

Silence persisted as it waited for him to cotton on to what it was saying. The wind shifted directions and blew a dead bush across the road between them. Finally, the man stopped his crying and moaning and reached into one of his pouches while muttering. Not to it apparently, but rather to himself.

“S-Stupid. They told me this would happen, but I was hoping to cut back on travel times. Now look at me, being mugged by a bear.”

Waiting patiently it huffed slightly at that. Not a mugger, it was a bandit according to every other human. Maybe this one was just especially stupid. Or maybe it was every other human who had been wrong? Something to think about in the future.

Eventually, the man overcame his fumbling to grab his wallet which he placed on the ground. It grinned at the sight, well aware of what the people here used to hold their money by this point. It picked up the wallet gently with two claws, and then peeled it open, revealing a small be well-kept stack of Belly bills and coins, clean, sparkling. Glorious in every way.

It licked at its chops, wiping away the drool collecting there, wouldn’t want to ruin the money.

It noticed from the corner of its eye that the man had made good on His escape while it had been sitting there admiring the glint of sunlight off of one of the silver Belly coins, but it ignored that.

A small stack of bills marked with a one thousand symbol and a picture of a rabbit man. A handful of coins ranging from a single one Belly coin, which it hadn’t actually seen before, all the way to the larger and more decorative five hundred Belly coins.

Not the best haul it had ever had, but far from the worst. And every single coin or bill was a blessing. It scent marked the coins affectionately.

Carrying both the wallet and the sign it waddled back off the road and out of the direct line of sight. Its stash wasn’t very far off, and it made its way there to the hollow under an especially thick tree root where it had been collecting its hoard over the past few weeks.

Once upon a time, it hadn’t known the loving shine of a Belly coin, nor the gentle softness of a Belly bill. It had lived as most of its kind did; in ignorance of such things. Then a group of humans had been startled on the road when they’d seen it napping under a tree in the open air. In their haste to get far away from the large bear before it awoke they’d dropped some of their money. That had been its first introduction to the phenomena that was ‘cash-money’, and it had been enamored ever since.

It carefully organized the new income into the rest of its stash and then added marks onto the root of the tree itself, tracking the numbers of specific bills or coins it had gathered. Perhaps unsurprisingly the lowest number of either coin or bill was the ten thousand bills, seeing as it only had eight of those. The second-lowest amount was the single Belly coin, with only a dozen in its stash.

It mentally added up the total of its stash and memorized the revised number, taking it to heart.

Two hundred and seventy-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-nine Belly’s.

“Hurr.”

It hummed happily, swaying in the light afternoon breeze. So much more than when it had started a year ago, so many Belly.

As it enjoyed the sight of neatly stacked rows of cash, a sound made its ears perk up again. A happy whistle, playing some tune it didn’t recognize, but it knew one of the few creatures on the island that could whistle like that were humans.

It turned away from its stash, the allure of even more Belly drawing it out to the road, and sure enough, as it peaked stealthily between two bushes, it saw a human walking down the road without a care in the world.

It looked like a female member of the species, maybe less fatty than some of them tended to be though. Not very tall, but apparently muscular enough to be able to carry a stack of lumber planks tied together on its shoulder. They whistled as they walked, and showed none of the tenseness or fear that it had come to expect of travelers on the road as tales of its banditry spread.

Well, fear or not they were a human, and thus likely to have Belly on them, so it grabbed its sign, waited until the human was too close to be able to outrun it, and then it stepped out into the road, long practice letting it make those steps on its hind legs easily.

The human stopped walking, though it kept whistling as they looked it up and down. The bear tapped its long claws against the sign, doing the same tried and trued pantomimes.

‘Clack’ Belly, thumbs up. ‘Clack’ mauling, thumbs down.

The human chuckled, which was also a strange response.

“Ah, this is a robbery then? Sorry, mate, I don’t have any money. What’s it called again? Berry? I don’t have any berries on me.”

It frowned, exposing a lot of its teeth. Not food, they were called ‘Belly’, it tapped the sign again and then pointed more forcefully at the human. Some had tried this trick of claiming to not have any, but it was pretty much always a lie to keep their money from it.

The human frowned, shifting the stack of planks to better adjust while she was standing still.

“Look, bear bandit mugger, or whatever. I don’t got no money for you, y’hear? I’m broke, penniless. Better luck next time.”

The bear had had just about enough out of this human’s mouth, and so when they started walking forward again, set on bypassing its wide stance blocking off the road, it snarled, baring every one of its teeth at the human as a final warning.

The human stopped short and glared up at the bear’s maw, face twisted in frustration. Then she sighed, heaving the planks and setting them on the road next to her.

“Right, sorry about this. I’m a bit new around here and haven’t quite gotten a handle on how strong I’m supposed to be, so ‘bear’ with me please.”

It groaned internally at the bear pun and decided that was the final straw that broke the bear’s back. It lashed out with one of its wide clawed paws, faster than any human it’d seen could move. But when it’d finished the swing it hadn’t hit anything, and it saw that the human wasn’t where it’d been standing before. It looked around confusedly, and then it heard a yell from above.

It looked up, just in time to receive a fist to its nose, as the human hammered it across the snout.

The bear fell to the ground, swirls in its eyes and the human wiped her hands of bear snot on her shorts.

“Wellp,” she said, looking at the large furry form of her foe. “That was a bit anticlimactic.”

She nudged the unresponsive bear a few times with the toe of her shoe, shrugged, picked her bundle of planks back up, and continued on her way.

It was still afternoon when it came to, which was surprising as considering how badly its snout hurt it would have thought it would be much later before it woke up from that blow. It hadn’t even been hit like that before, most people didn’t even try to hit it, instead just running away.

A groan slipped out as it stood up, the blow to the head leaving it with not only a killer headache but also a very sore neck and back. It felt similar to the time it had run headfirst into a tree as a cub. Only worse.

With an injured body and an even worst injured pride, it slunk back to its den, located in the hollow under the tree with its stash. Shuffling aside its Belly collection gently, it made just enough room for a bear its size to lay down curled up in a tight ball, which is what it did.

Despite it being still afternoon it gave up on the rest of the day and resolved to sleep off its woes.

It also resolved to avoid the punchy woman in the future if at all possible.

~JR~

It became necessary to avoid her the next day, once more walking down the road, in the same direction as before, meaning it must have missed her returning when it went to sleep earlier. Once more she was carrying a bundle of lumber on a shoulder, and whistling as she walked.

It hid in the bushes and eyed her carefully as she passed by, freezing when she slowed at the spot they’d met the previous day, but it relaxed when she continued on.

It was more than happy to avoid another confrontation with her, and by actually staying awake and aware, it learned that she made her return journey around sunset.

This became routine for the next several days.

Anytime someone else would walk down the road, it would ambush them and relieve them of their Belly’s. But whenever it heard that whistle or smelled her on the wind, it would hide out of sight and wait for her to pass by. Always whistling, and always carrying a bundle of planks and lumber.

On the sixth day, it watched her carrying the lumber, it’s curiosity finally outgrew its fear. So it followed her, stealthily and at a distance. Down the road, through the forest it had lived in all its life, and then down an offshoot path that led to the coast.

The path led to a small bay, largely hidden by trees and clearly unused for a while. Unused except for a wooden structure that was being assembled on the beach that is. It was entirely framework thus far, but it looked like it could maybe be a house for several humans, though the bear found itself exasperated that it could have been so easily beaten by a human dumb enough to build a house upside down.

The bear watched as the human picked up what seemed to be human tools, but roughly fashioned and made of wood and stone instead of the harder metals it had seen in the past. With one tool it knew to be a hammer, she started hammering the lumber into place. But it was off. She would hold up a plank, hammer the middle of it, and somehow the plank would end up nailed to the framework.

Not only was this puzzling, but it was also concerning. Had it tried picking a fight with a magic human?

It watched her hammer the planks into place, take a break to eat something, and then it followed her back down the road around sunset until they passed its usual ambush spot.

It slunk towards its den and pondered this strange activity.

The next day it followed her again, watched her strange routine as she hammered in more of the siding for the upside-down house, and then walking back.

The third day it got the courage to follow her past its ambush site, and it found that some ways up the road, she branched off but not on a path, instead, she walked a smaller trail that led to a clearing filled with stumps and then a single small lean-to shelter. The human-made a fire, sat by it for about an hour fiddling with something it couldn’t make out from its hiding spot in the bushes. Eventually, though, it got late enough that the human crawled into the poorly made shelter, and the bear itself returned to its den.

It could understand making a house if all she had was that small lean-to. But it also felt some measure of pity for the human. All that effort wasted simply because she was building it upside-down. Sad.

By the fifth day it had decided that it may have overestimated the human after getting punched. It knew that it wasn’t invincible, so really it was just that the human had gotten the drop on it, so when it heard the whistling coming down the road, it once more grabbed its sign and stood in the middle of the road.

The woman paused when she saw the bear, and it made its usual gestures for money, tapping the sign. She sighed.

“Listen, I thought we already went over this. I don’t have any money. I’m broke, you saw where I live.”

Nervous sweat dripped down its body, and it turned its head away, grumbling a negative. She chuckled at the sight of a poorly lying bear.

“Reakeekeekee. Whatever you say, but the point stands, I don’t have any-”

While she was mid-sentence it sprung forward with a roar, swing wildly with both clawed paws. The woman gritted her teeth and held the plank bundle firmly as she dodged to the side, lashing out with a foot as she did.

It saw the foot coming and made a bite for it, but she pulled it back in the nick of time as the teeth clamped together just shy of her shoe. It grinned to itself, this was going much better.

They shuffled, slowly circling one another, but this time she acted first, balancing the wood on her shoulder she juked left, and then spun to the right. The bear followed her movement to the right and stumbled when it ended up being a feint, leaving it open to her punishing left cross into its midsection.

“Hah!”

Ripples flowed out from the impact on its flank and spittle flew from its mouth as it flew off, spinning from the punch until it impacted a tree. It tried muscling to its feet, but it collapsed from the effort, and then decided it would just sleep here, so it waved the human away.

She laughed again as she started walking, taking the win for what it was. She waved back to it as she left.

“Seeya later then. Drop by sometime if you want, I don’t get much company back at camp.”

It most certainly would not do such a thing. It turned over, facing away from the human and her whistling, grumbling about stupidly strong humans and their strange habits as it passed out.

~JR~

If it had to blame anything for the mistake it was making, it would be the tedium that the past three days had wrought. It had avoided picking any more fights with the human carrying wood, the bruise only just starting to fade from the last time. Instead, it had gotten back to its roots, namely robbing humans other than strong wood carrying human. There weren’t an especially large amount, there hadn’t been for a long time now, but there were a few brave souls who quickly became less brave when faced with a bear larger than they were blocking their route.

But its heart wasn’t in it anymore.

It wasn’t that it disliked Belly or anything, rather Belly seemed to be the only thing it really appreciated nowadays. Instead, it just seemed like after the heart pumping adrenaline of a fight, short as they tended to have been, standing and mugging helpless individuals lost its luster.

So it was trotting down the road to where it knew the humans camp was. Maybe if it followed her for a while it could learn the secrets of her strength. And she had invited it along after all.

It was a cloudier day that morning, not chilly but cooler than it had been over the previous week, not that the weather bothered it at all with its thick fur coat.

It walked down the path and emerged into the clearing where the humans camp was, and sure enough there she was, facing a tree at the far end of the clearing. Starting to walk forward it paused as it saw her punch the tree. Was this how she trained then? But then how was she chopping the trees down.

_Thwack, thwack, thwack._

_Pip._

“Hwuah???”

Its jaw dropped as it witnessed the tree she had been punching disappear from existence with an audible popping noise, leaving behind the human, a stump, and a pile of sticks and leaves around the stump.

The female must have heard its surprise, as she turned around and waved casually.

“Oh hey, glad to see you decided to stop on by finally. Busy with harvesting, but if you want there's some leftover breakfast over by the fire. Just check the wicker basket.”

That said, she turned back and began gathering the sticks and leaves that had… dropped? Dropped from the tree. On a second look around the clearing there was a small pile of sticks and leaves near the center point of the clearing, which is where she carried over the ones that had freshly dropped off the tree she had been punching.

Deciding that food did sound quite good at that moment it wandered over to the camp and found the basket she’d been referring to next to the still smoking embers of a campfire. The basket looked roughly made, twisted together from some kind of plant life, but well-made enough, and it had a lid to match. It nosed the lid off the basket, noting that there was a small strap that acted as a kind of hinge.

Inside the basket was a clump of berries it recognized as edible and nonpoisonous, and a small clay pot filled with some kind of meaty stew.

Deciding that berries were the norm, it carefully pulled out the pot of stew in its paws, and began lapping it up. Hesitantly at first, unsure what to expect, it was pleasantly surprised by the taste. It wasn’t very flavorful, and some cooked roots in it were bland, but it could clearly taste the rabbit meat, and it also tasted some herbs it knew grew in the forest.

As it eat the stew it watched the female walk over to another tree once she’d moved the sticks and leaves from the first stump. Once at the tree she began to punch it as well. It didn’t look like she was hitting the tree as hard as she’d hit its snout the other day, rather it was a decent hit, but more about the form. Turning her hips, twisting her fist at the last moment, throwing her body weight into each blow.

It tilted its head while slurping up some soup. Was this how humans fought, it knew she could throw a punch, having felt it twice now. Maybe that was the secret of her strength. And then the tree she was hitting popped out of existence.

It spewed out the stew as once more, an entire tree popped away leaving behind a stump and some debris on the ground.

She looked over her shoulder at its surprised expression and looked embarrassed, scratching the bridge of her nose.

“Ah, yeah. I guess that would be a surprise, eh? Took me a bit to get used to myself. But if you think that's weird you should check this out.”

Curious as to what exactly could be stranger than punching a tree out of existence, it carefully waddled over, making sure to stay out of arms reach as she gathered all the sticks from that tree up into a pile, and then punched the pile.

Normally, such an action would hurt the fist, or break the sticks. Maybe both. In her case, it half expected the sticks to poof away as well, as the tree had when punched.

Probably the last thing it expected to happen to that pile of sticks was for them to waver, and then meld into a stack of wooden planks.

“Grr… GRUH?”

She laughed at the bears bug eyed and jaw dropped expression.

“Yeah, its pretty weird, isn’t it? Dunno why it works like that, but it does make some things easier.”

Though it heard her words, it didn’t fully process them. All that was running through its head was a short cartoon of a bear getting punched by a woman, and then turning into a pile of sticks, or maybe a pile of meat and fur. Over and over on repeat.

It shook off that image from its head, and then pointed at the planks, then giving what it knew to be a universal ‘what the fuck’ sign, then pointing at itself. The woman shook her head, smiling.

“Nah, it doesn’t work like that. It only works on nonliving things, so I’d have to kill you first, which I don’t really want to.”

It nodded, that was actually more comforting than it seemed like it had any rights to be. She nodded back and there was a moment of silent commiseration between the two of them. Then it bit her face, jaws fully clamped around the sides of her head.

As she screamed into its mouth it grinned, sometimes an ambush was best. Then a foot hit it in the throat, and it collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

~JR~

The next month was in a similar vein. The bear would visit her campsite in the early morning, they’d share a breakfast together, and then they’d get to work. She would punch the trees down, the bear resigned itself to picking up the sticks and leaves and sorting them out. Then in the afternoon they’d have a quick meal, and then spar.

Sparring here meaning the bear would try any method it could think of to beat her in a fight, and usually end up on the ground with a lump on its head.

After the spar they’d head down the road together to the coast, so the human could continue her work. The bear came to find that while it was a home in a way, the human was actually constructing a ship. They’d hammer in turn, the bear getting experience with tools, and the whole time they’d share a companionable silence unless the human started to sing songs. She called them shanties, and they seemed well paced for work. The bear in turn shared the song of its people.

Finally, they walked together the last day, carrying the mast between the two of them. Down the road, taking a wider path to avoid getting caught in trees, and then once at the ship she leaned the mast against the side of it, and hammered it. The mast disappeared from the side of the ship, and appeared as a fixture in place. And from the mast somehow hung a tied up sail.

The bear couldn’t help a feeling of pride at seeing the finished product, and judging by the proud grin on her face the human felt the same. She clapped, and gave it a high five, which it had learned from her.

“Hell's yeah! We finished. Tomorrow it's time for its virgin voyage.”

Despite the cheer and pride in the task being done, the bear also couldn’t help but feel… sad? The human would doubtlessly soon leave the island, and it had grown so used to having her around it didn’t know what it would do in the future, back to highway robbery? Didn’t have the same shine to it.

“Whats up, dude? All good?”

She laid a hand on its furry shoulder, and it just nodded, not needing to add anything to the moment. She nodded back, but still seemed unsure.

“Well, first thing in the morning then. I know I had to store some stuff, but I got some foodstuff set aside for a leaving feat. Let's go eat.”

And eat they did. Her idea of food set aside seemed to be mystery meat and fruit and veggie shish kabob’s roasted over a much larger campfire than normal, which she called a ‘bonfire’.

They ate, and danced, and sang well into the night, and after she’d collapsed to sleep, the bear slunk off to its den, not wanting to watch what had fast become its friend leave in the morning.

Despite how much they’d enjoyed each other's company, the bear had never shown the human its den, largely because it slipped its mind. So it was honestly surprised when bright, and early it heard someone knocking on the root that framed the mouth of its den.

“Knock-knock. Wakey-wakey eggs and bakey. Well, there are actual eggs, but I stuffed em into a baked potato looking root. No bacon though… And now I’m sad. C’mon out and help me stop being sad, and get glad.”

It blinked blearily, its eyes still half crusted over as it largely ignored her ranting. She got like that sometimes and the best bet was to just let her run it out while it dealt with the more important questions. Such as how did she find its den?

“Haah, bags would be nice. Don’t got none though, a shame. Anyways, get your big-bear-butt out here. Times a-wasting.”

Resigning itself to a goodbye, it slowly unrolled and carefully crept past its piles of organized Belly’s, squeezing out the entrance of its den, sure enough there she stood, wearing the same clothes, smiling wide, and holding out a baked root filled with cooked eggs apparently, a second in her other hand with a few bites already taken out of it.

It gratefully accepted the food, taking the whole chunk into its mouth and ignoring how hot it was still at its center. The human was looking over the den, not entering, but just politely nodding at it.

“Nice place you got here. Suppose it would be a shame to leave it.”

It tilted its head at her, why would it need to leave its den? Seemingly understanding its question she laughed.

“Reakeekeekee! What, you think I wasn’t gonna do my damnedest to bet you to come along with me? If I can swing it, we’re both setting sail today, matey.”

Dumbly, it sat back on its haunches, staring at her grinning face. It pointed a claw at its chest and she nodded.

“Yes you, you big lug. Not like I know anyone else on this island. So, if you’ll have me.” She held out an open hand, her grin still wide and her eyes glimmering with a promise it didn’t recognize. “Come set sail with me.”

Well, there was only one thing to say to that. It rubbed the grime from its eyes, definitely just grime no tears. And it shook her hand.

She beamed.

“Well, then, we’d best get you all packed up.”

So, it let her help it pack. She was providing the packing baskets anyways, so it wasn’t much trouble. Also, it found that it trusted her to handle its Belly’s without worrying about her taking any. For her part, it got to introduce the money and its values as apparently she’d had no idea before then.

With the Belly’s in a basket, they set off for the ship, and for a voyage.

One last time it looked back at its now empty den, its home for most of its life. And then it looked to its human friend, forging ahead with a whistle on her lips as usual.

The exchange was well worth it, as it trundled along behind her, maybe not happier, but more content than it’d been in a long time.

“By the way, I don’t suppose you have a name?

“Grrowl.”

“No? That’s about what I thought. What would you like to be called?”

“...”

“Berry? No, Belly then? Belly the Bear. I can get behind that kind of alliteration.”

“Grr.”

“Oh yeah! Me! My name’s… My name’s Lana. Nice to meet’cha.”


	2. Chapter 1: Strange Tides

It was their second day of sailing that Lana glanced up from the steering wheel at the helm towards Belly, who was half slung over the railing of the ship, tinted an unusual green as they fought to keep their breakfast on the inside instead of in the sea. She tapped her chin as she held the wheel.

“You know, it would probably help us if I knew the first thing about sailing… Or navigating.”

“Grrr-burp-gar?”

She nodded, once more tying off the wheel to make sure they kept moving with the wind, which was about the extent of her knowledge.

“Yeah, it’s this whole profession and base of knowledge people need to have. Personally, I don’t know anything, so we’ve basically just been drifting along.”

Not even looking, Belly waved one of their claws dismissively. Neither of them was in a hurry to get anywhere, the ship was moving along just fine and Lana had found that she knew how to fish and make a water purifier out of ‘scrap’ as she called it. There was also plenty of fish in the sea, and a grill in the kitchen to use so food and water situations were relatively stable for now.

Lana grabbed her fishing pole and went and sat on the railing, perched near Belly as she’d found that when the bear upchucked it tended to attract fish. Casting the line, she kicked her feet and hummed in the bright mid-morning sunlight.

The ship, unnamed as of yet, was a single-masted boat, with storage, a bathroom, a kitchen, and two rooms for quarters. Although the second room went largely unused as Belly usually insisted on sleeping in the storage room surrounded by their money.

The strangest thing about the ship was doubtlessly the largely uniform color of the wood and how in certain spots the exact pattern of the planks and grains of wood seemed to repeat. Beyond that, a totally normal ship manned by a girl and a bear.

In the time it took Belly’s stomach to once again settle down enough for them to unlatch themselves from the railing Lana had managed to hook one fish, four pieces of ‘metal scrap’, and five planks of wood. Also, one single waterlogged boot, about a size eleven, men's.

With the air of a month of practice, she ignored the boot, adding it to the ‘garbage’ pile with a few soggy newspaper rolls, and she dropped the scrap and wood into two nearby open baskets. She’d take them down to storage later for sorting, for the moment she set the fish in its own basket and cast another line, hoping to get at least three or four fish for a late lunch. Meanwhile, Belly wandered over to the helm, looked at the wheel tied in place, determined it looked like they were still heading in a general direction, and laid out on the deck to sunbathe.

Twenty minutes later and Belly was asleep, meanwhile Lana was so engrossed in her fishing, engrossed enough to have dozed off with a loose grasp on the rod, that she may have missed them sailing directly by a shipwreck were it not for her fishhook catching on a piece of debris thus pulling on the pole.

Rousing herself slightly, she looked over the remains of what appeared to be some kind of trading ship. No visible gun ports or cannon braces on the deck led her to believe it was likely a civilian ship of some kind anyway. But, it had clearly come under attack, several holes blown in the deck and side, and then at some point during the conflict it must have been struck by either the enemy ship or a rock.

That was the assumption, based on the fact that the ship had clearly been broken in two, snapped neatly down the middle. She found it more likely it had hit a rock than been struck by a ship, seeing as the rock was still jutting up in between the two halves of the ship and seemingly holding them in place.

Spread out over the splintered deck of one of the halves there was a scattering of dried out bones, all picked completely clean by something. Sniffing the air she caught the scent of saltwater, fresh breeze, wood, and the musk of something nearby.

A grin stole across her face, something was afoot. She stashed away her fishing rode and hurried about her own ship, tying up the mast and looping some rope around the large jutting rock and then tying that to the ship railing. Deciding that would serve to hold the ship in place she leaped up onto the railing of her ship and called back to the dozing bear.

“Hey, Belly. Mysterious shipwreck, gonna go check it out. If you hear a blood-curdling scream either I’m being murdered or I’m doing a murdering.”

Once she saw a dismissive wave she lined up and jumped onto the ruins of the ship. Landing as lightly as she could in case the wood was rotted out from age. Fortunately, the wreck seemed to be newer, as the wooden planks underfoot barely let out a creak as her boots hit them.

Creeping forward as best she could, trying not to make noise, Lana looked over the state of the ship. The general lack of wear and tear on the boards beyond what might be considered ‘normal’ likely meant this was a more recent wreck. But there were more bones than you might expect unless they were left there as a warning or some strange prank. On second glance and closer examination, the bones didn’t look old, as in they didn’t appear to have been bleached by the sun overhead yet.

Not that Lana knew next to anything about how long it took bones to become bleached in direct sunlight. She was coming to find she didn’t know much about anything. She also didn’t know anyone who knew anyone, though in matters of money she’d probably defer to Belly at this point.

Her musings, rambling as they were, were cut off when she heard the sound of a strange shuffling noise coming from within the ship, echoing up the half-broken stairs that led to an interior deck. The ship was by no means small, likely about five times larger than their own, and so even half of the ship meant the noise sounded more distant.

A chill raced up her spine and a grin snuck its way onto her face before she even knew it. This read like some kind of horror scenario, exploring the innards of a broken ship where whatever killed the missing crew could still be lurking.

“How engaging.”

She crept forward, toes to heel stepping carefully as she descended the half-destroyed steps into the darkness below deck. Once she got to the bottom she stopped for a solid minute, just focusing, and slowly her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Pointedly, the darkness wasn’t perfect or total, beams of light shone through cracks here and there illuminating enough that she could navigate, but not enough to make things easily visible.

She made her way forward, pausing whenever she heard the shuffling noise again, and it sounded like something brushing up against the wall, but the fact that she hadn’t come across it yet meant that it was moving, possibly away from her if it knew she was there. As she snuck, her fingers traced grooves in the wooden planks underfoot, some sections in the halls were more bowed than they should be, as if something heavy had pressed down against them over time.

The game of cat and mouse continued, and despite her being more and more certain that the other thing in the hull was much larger than she was, it appeared to her as if in this game she were the cat. Thus, she shifted, her strides became longer, less focused on not disturbing boards, and more on consuming as much space with as little effort and noise as she could manage. Still low to the ground her hands snaked out mid-stride and grabbed hold of a wooden pole that had snapped in half, leaving one end with a point. Her breath picked up slightly, and she wouldn’t speak to how wide her grin grew.

The change in her gate was noticed by her quarry, and they too picked up the pace to avoid her. But the sudden shift in their speed is what she’d been looking for as she immediately came to a stop and began to backtrack much more silently than before. This second change was so abrupt she almost heard the other entity trip over themselves, and that’s when she turned a tight quarter and saw them, large hands bracing themselves against the walls to avoid tripping.

The person was tall enough that they were forced to stoop heavily in the hallways, wide enough that they were turned slightly to the side to fit, and despite this, they’d been moving with a mouse-like quality. Their clothes were ragged, no shoes, and bloodied, as were they. And clearly, they hadn’t been cleaned in a while as their hair was long, thick, and matted down, matching an equally matted beard. The amount of frazzled hair spilling down may have only been shoulder-length, but it completely hid their face.

The giant was frozen in shock at suddenly being caught, while Lana was content to merely observe, at the ready with the broken pole, but just standing by for the moment. She could almost swear she saw the tall person looking her over just as she’d done with them, and whatever they saw must have been enough as they slowly slid to the ground, making themselves appear as small as they could, and they raised their hands in what must be the universal sign for surrender, arms out, hands up, showing no weapons in them.

They both held still, the giant waiting for her, and her just examining the large figure before her, the lines of tension in their body, not a spring ready to be sprung, but braced. Head not aimed fully towards her, but down and slightly away, like they couldn’t bring themselves to come face to face with her. Cowed, broken, but not spineless.

She nodded, more to herself than to the other person.

Carefully, she set down the pole and then walked forward, casually, but not heavily, then, just within arm’s length of the other person she sat down, legs crossed and hands place deliberately on her knees. Unlike her counterpart, she kept her head faced forward, eyes on where she thought theirs were. No real expression on her face, just a blank openness.

Their arms lowered, slowly, tentatively. She made no reaction to the change in posture, just calmly sitting. They shifted forward slightly, moving an inch at a time, and anytime they moved more than a few inches they’d stop and look for a reaction from her. She made none.

Their fist lashed out, careening towards her face with explosive force, stopping just before hitting her and causing a gust of wind to ruffle through her hair. She mildly looked over the hand, noting how skeletal the fingers looked and how heavily tanned and cracked the skin was.

The large person pulled their fist back, almost as if they worried she’d bite it despite her making no move, finally, even more tentatively than before it held out its right hand, open and extended towards her. Gently, and making sure to put no extra pressure on it, she grasped their hand in her own and slowly moved it up and down. Hand-shake protocol accomplished, she leaned back, resting on her knuckles as she threw her arms back to support her weight.

“So, hello there. Sorry if I’m intruding on your… home? But I saw the wreck and wanted to look it over, either for survivors or for supplies or salvage. Who’re you? If you don’t mind me asking that is.”

The figure scratched at the area roughly around their chin, and then put a finger to their mouth, pointed at themselves, and shook their head.

“Ah, you don’t know who you are? No, you can’t talk, is that it?”

They nodded. She frowned, looked them up and down contemplatively. She raised her eyebrows, pointed towards them, and then held her hands out in front of her, pointer fingers extended, and she did a short wheeling motion with them counterclockwise. The person’s head cocked, but they didn’t respond to her question, so she made a note of that to herself and continued.

“Well, if you can’t talk that’s gonna make things a tad more difficult. I suppose we go with the tried and true ‘yes or no’ question format, that work for you?”

Once she received their nod she began.

“Are you stuck here?” 

A nod. 

“Would you like to stay here in this shipwreck?” 

A shake. 

“Would you be willing to travel with me till we can drop you off somewhere?” 

A pause and then a slow nod. 

“Have you had any food recently?” 

A nod. She remembered the bones on deck and rephrased the question. 

“Have you had enough food recently?” 

They shook their head. 

“Right, that’s about what I thought. Final question, do you mind me salvaging what I can from the ship while you eat lunch before we leave the area?”

Perking up at the mention of lunch, they shook their head, and rose to their feet, still stooped over but clearly eager to follow her out. Willing to take the lead, she lurched to her own feet, and led them out the mess of hallways, up the broken stairs which barely impeded the giant at all with the length of their legs, and out into the sunlight.

Emerging out onto the open deck Lana noticed Belly still napping on their ship, so she jumped over to the ship and turned around, bracing against the railing and holding out a hand.

“Alright, I’ll help you onboard, grab on.”

She watched them staring at her outstretched hand for a long moment before they shyly extended their own much larger hand. She gripped the massive limb best as she could manage, waited until they were trying to get up, and gave them an extra heave to help them aboard. A month ago she would have yanked against the limb and done nothing but after a month of punching trees and carrying planks, she felt like she was now capable of giving a solid boost.

Not enough yet, not strong enough, but she improved.

Once she’d made sure ‘he’ was comfortable on the deck, sitting cross-legged twiddling his thumbs, she went into what she’d essentially dubbed the kitchen and pantry area, grabbing a half barrel of drinking water and a platter loaded with fried fish. She made sure there would still be a few set aside for Belly, and she made a mental note to herself that she’d need to go fishing for more food now that they needed food for three. Or more like twelve considering how large the giant man was and also how much she ate nowadays.

Carrying the barrel and platter out was made easier by the fact that she’d apparently forgotten to craft any doors for the doorways, which seemed like a silly oversight in retrospect, but it did mean she didn’t have to try and open a door with her foot or hip. Once on the deck she set the barrel down and laid out the platter of fish with a side of sliced oranges. Or she thought they were oranges anyways, they tasted like a sweet orange even if they were pink.

She quickly backed away to show him that the food was all for him, and she made her way back onto the shipwreck to see what she could salvage, a hammer dangling off her belt via a small cord loop.

~JR~

It took a few hours, but she’d actually managed to deconstruct quite a lot of supplies from the ship in general. While it had obviously been pretty well looted, there were things left behind or overlooked, and she stood proudly before her haul with her hands on her hips and a wide grin. Belly and the giant both watched from the deck of their ship, Belly used to this sort of nonsense by now, but the giant appeared quite nonplussed about the whole thing.

Overall she’d gotten a solid section of wooden planks, the most efficient method of storing wood she’d found, dozens of yards of sailcloth and general linen rolls, lots of rope, hundreds of nails, hinges, and assorted metal scraps. But without a doubt, the crowning bits were the sink, toilet, and tub she’d found, including quite a lot of pipes and even more than a little electric wiring. Turns out when you disassembled an entire section of the wall, what had been within the walls just sort of fell to the floor for her to pick up.

Perhaps the only downside to these finds was that she had no idea how to hook up electrical wiring in her ship, though her sixth sense was already pinging on about how to use the pipes, toilet, sink, and tub all together with a much larger ‘industrial’ sized water purifier. Her hands buzzed with energy, and it was only barely that she forced herself to look away and turn back to the two silent occupants of the ship.

“Well, it’s not much, but it’s a decent haul.” She said, stretching her hands out to present the pile of salvaged goods. “Personally, I’m most excited to hook the toilet up, get that running, and it should help with the smell in the bathroom. Turns out a hole and chute only barely work for actually disposing of waste.”

Belly nodded forcefully, they being the most bothered by the smells and if they weren’t so worried about going overboard they likely would have already been doing their ‘business’ off the side of the ship. The giant man also nodded, though more in the spirit of the group than any actual knowledge of what she was talking about. Speaking of, Lana snapped her fingers and pointed at him.

“Right, we never got your name.” Belly gave her a look and she threw out her hands in a huff. “What? I was more worried about getting him some food before he collapsed into a pile of twiggy bones! Besides, you didn’t even have a name before we talked about it so don’t act like this is some kinda issue only I have here.” She pointed back at the large man.

“All that aside, you do need a name because all I’ve been able to identify you as thus far is a large, hairy man. And that just won’t fly for a passenger.”

He shrugged a bit carelessly and Lana facepalmed.

“Right, course you wouldn’t know. Why would people know their own name before setting sail, I sure didn’t. Well, in fairness I’ll let Belly have first crack at it.”

Belly scratched their furry tummy idly, thinking deeply as they looked up and down the form of the new passenger on the ship. Large, long limbs, big hair energy up top. They nodded, and held out the paws in a wide arc.

Lana drug her hand down her face. “Really, Belly, you wanna go with ‘Big’?” They nodded, satisfied with a job well done. The large man also seemed like he thought the name worked. She groaned. “Why not an actual name, like ‘Bill’, or ‘Jack’, or ‘Grimsby’ or something.”

Hearing that, the man held up a finger, and traced out a couple of words on the ground. Then he leaned back, proud as punch of the job he’d done. On the deck, traced in a bit of ash from an overcooked fish was a name. Lana squinted at it, head tilted trying to read it upside down.

“Big Jack? No, wait, that's a different word. ‘Juyo’ Jack? I don’t actually know if grammatically that-” She cut off and looked at him, still seeming pleased as punch with his idea, and instead of finishing her statement she just nodded. “Right, well Juyo Jack it is then I guess. I’m gonna call you JJ though, and there’s not really much you can do to dissuade me now.”

JJ nodded, obviously even more pleased with a nickname than he’d been with a proper name.

Stowing the supplies in the storage room was made much easier with JJ helping out, seeing as just y sheer size he could carry a larger load than either she or Belly could, and while making their way through the ship Lana made a mental note to expand the size of the hallways. Even with that done there was the matter of sleeping arrangements, and despite JJ pantomiming that he’d be fine sleeping outside under the stars Lana still ended up spending the next three hours of them floating along aimlessly to build a fairly large shelter of JJ at the back of the ship behind the helm area. Despite the ship looking a bit lopsided now, she still thought the effort was worth it when JJ sat down in his little hut and grinned large enough that his teeth were exposed even through his matted hair.

With the wind at their back Lana dropped the sail, and they continued on their way, Lana only stopping every now and again to check the surrounding seas for any sight of land. That is until around dusk when JJ tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at himself, and then mimed the act of steering. She frowned.

“You want to take a turn? Oh. no wait. You know how to steer? Not just steer though, you know how to actually navigate?”

He nodded, seeming pleased at her interpretation. She smiled, eyes sparkling.

“Well, that does change some things now, doesn’t it?”


	3. Cat in the Cradle: Part 1

As it turned out, having someone relatively skilled in navigation didn’t matter nearly as much when said person had no access to any sort of navigational equipment or charts of the area. So the ship continued along the way much as it had since the first day of the voyage, though now the helm was manned by Jack, whose massive hands nearly dwarfed the wheel completely.

While that went on, Belly began the task of organizing the random stuff they’d gotten through scavenge while Lana began the task of implementing a water system. Setting the tub and toilet into the bathroom, and the sink into the kitchen was the easiest part of the whole bit, it quickly got frustrating when she focused on the walls of her ship and came to the very sudden realization that they weren’t compatible with the pipes, due to being fairly simple walls placed together in joints. The walls would need to be thicker in order to have pipes run through them, and she’d also need a place to construct a water purifier, rain collector, and link the whole system up.

Luckily, by using a second jointed wall she could lay pipes in the gap between them, but in many cases, it would mean rebuilding most, if not all the interior deck.

When Belly had rolled their eyes huffily and asked why she couldn’t just renovate a small part of the ship to hold the water system and leave the rest as is, Lana went on a twenty-minute rant about aesthetics and upgrading the entire ship as they went.

Although in the end, she did decide to take Belly’s advice, and so the bathroom, kitchen, and then a single room directly below built into the storage deck were turned into pipe holding walls. The room off of storage she turned into a water purifier and water storage room. Although the pumping wasn’t automatic she was able to hook up a fairly rudimentary hand pumping station in order to give water pressure to the pipes.

It was crude, but by focusing slightly she knew it was the best she could do with her current tools at hand.

As she clapped her hands together to remove sawdust she looked over at a relatively concerned-looking Belly as they took stock of the food situation. She decided not to ask and wandered off. Hopefully, they’d find land before that issue reared its head.

~JR~

They didn’t.

Lana had made fishing poles for all three of them to try and combat the food problems that had cropped up in not finding any land in a couple of weeks. But that revealed another problem when Belly had no real talent with a pole, and Jack would keep dozing off in the sun, thus missing when his line tugged.

So due to that, Lana was the designated fisher of the three of them, and though she caught something fairly regularly, around fifty percent of the time it ended up being either a piece of trash or a piece of scrap. When Lana fished up yet another boot, making that the second pair that day, Belly had tossed their paws into the air in disgust and wandered off, clearly tired of watching reality bend around Lana’s tools. She was also sick of it, but only due to the amount of trash she fished. Empty cans, soggy newspaper rolls, waterlogged boots, broken glasses, and plastic bags were the main things she tended to fish up when it came to trash. The scrap was usually either metal or cloth, though sometimes, somehow her hook would catch on actual wooden planks as well.

She could inherently tell that she wouldn’t fish up as much trash if she had a higher quality fishing pole, but it was what it was.

The main problem with what it was, was that with three people now aboard, her fishing skills weren’t actually enough to fully offset what they’d been eating daily, and thus even on rations, they’d nearly fully expended their food stores.

With these issues in mind, Lana had set to fishing full time, and while it still didn’t balance it out, it slowed the dip.

Still, sitting on the railing all day, fishing pole in hand, was easily the most bored Lana had been in several weeks, maybe even a full month and a half since she’d arrived. So she took to telling stories to pass the time, mostly to herself, but by the second day, Jack was sitting cross-legged on the deck and giving her all his attention whenever he wasn’t correcting their heading.

With an audience, Lana turned to the more popular stories she could remember, maybe tweaked slightly for the place she now found herself. Farm boys turned Rebellion heroes, sinking the vast warship of the evil Empire. A great voyage across the seas with nine companions, set to destroy an evil magical artifact in the volcano where it was made. Four children stumbling through a wardrobe and finding themselves on a magically frozen island, cursed by a witch. A land of small talking animals living in a monastery, defending themselves from interlopers and making the most elaborate feasts.

It was that final story that seemingly reeled Belly in fully, more than likely by the food description as all three of them drooled heavily at the idea of dandelion tea or ‘deeper’n’ever turnip’n’tater’n’beetroot pie’.

And then another week passed, their food storage ran out completely, and they were all a bit too hungry to appreciate a good story. So Lana started singing a bit instead, just a tune here or there, she didn’t have a great voice. But by this point, it was really anything to combat the utter boredom of fishing again, whilst also being rather hungry.

“Lowlands, lowlands away, me John. Her cheeks were wet, her eyes did weep. Lowlands away.”

A pull on the wire, and with speed born of long practice she reeled in some sort of long, bright yellow fish, about eighteen inches in length. A quick flip removed it off of the hook, and in a single motion, she both tossed the fish over her shoulder, and also cast the line again.

“She came to me at my bedside. Lowlands, lowlands away, me John. All dressed in white, like some fair bride. Lowlands away.”

She could hear the sound of fish hitting the grill, and very quickly the smell of lightly seared fish meat once more wafted about her nose. She crinkled her nose up, the smell both made her hungry and also slightly ill from the sheer amount of fish she’d consumed in the past couple of weeks.

“You know what, Belly, JJ. Soon as we hit the next island, I’m gonna get as many seeds as I can and start an onboard garden up. Maybe some fruit trees, some vines… Stuff like that.”

From the direction of the grill she had set up on the open deck last week, she heard the continued sizzle of fish flesh and Belly responding to her statement.

“Grrowl?”

She pouted slightly, kicking her feet.

“No, I don’t. But how hard can gardening really be? Bet I could learn it easy enough. Besides, any food source onboard would be helpful during times like these.”

A grumbled response from Belly as they finished cooking the fish, and then Lana could hear it flying through the air as Belly whipped it up to Jack at the helm making course corrections once more.

“Just think of it, Belly. Potatoes, and peppers, and apples, and oranges, some tomatoes. Maybe grow some cabbages. And who knows what sort of weird fruit or vegetable seeds we can find on different islands around here.”

She thought back to the pink oranges from the island, the last of which they’d eaten a week ago, split three ways and partially squeezed over some fish.

Well, nothing for it by then but to hope they made landfall sooner rather than later.

“Whey-hey, and up she rises. Whey-hey, and up she rises. Whey-hey, and up she rises, early in the morning.”

~JR~

Later that evening found Lana in the storage room, hauling an armful of scraps and wooden planks that had all been fished up that day when she heard someone loudly thumping the upper deck above her. Concerned over the worst, namely pirates or such, she dropped her supplies, grabbed her wooden hammer, and sprinted up to the top deck looking about frantically.

Instead of finding enemies, she found a very excitedly pointing Belly, and Jack at the helm turning the ship towards the right. She dashed to Belly’s side and saw that off in their new heading was a faint, but unmistakable form of a distant island on the horizon.

Lana leaped up onto the railing of the ship, holding onto the rope sail ties with one hand and pointing towards the land with the other.

“Land HO! Thank you, sweet tiny baby Jesus, we’ve finally found land!”

Next to her Belly leaned over the side of the ship and let out a gut trembling roar of satisfaction and excitement, and she could actually feel Juyo Jack vibrating with happiness at his perch from where she stood.

The sunset before they got close enough to fully make out the layout of the island or if there were any settlements visible, but despite the dark Jack managed to steer the ship up to the island without wavering. Once she could make out the beach in the dark Lana turned back to Jack.

“We probably should have thought of this before, but we don’t got no way to anchor ourselves down right now, best run us aground, for now, so we don’t lose the ship.”

And so they did, beaching the ship fully required them to get out and push, but with Jack’s help that task was much easier than it would have been otherwise. The hull carved a deep furrow into the beach until Lana felt confident it wasn’t going anywhere, and so for the first time in a while, all three of them took steps onto solid, dry ground.

Jack dropped to his knees, running his fingers deep into the sandy turf and picking it up, watching the grains fall between his fingers with a look of joy and wonder that made Lana feel awkward to have seen it on his face. Belly, meanwhile picked carefully across the sand with a frown of distaste on their snout until they got to a patch of grass, and then they dropped and rolled in it groaning pleasurably.

Meanwhile, Lana couldn’t help her grin, her first voyage was a success in every way that mattered. Namely, everyone survived. She looked up and down the beach, taking stock in the moonlight. The beach ran a long way in both directions, curving inwards out of sight, and further inland was a decently thick jungle canopy, different from the more temperate forest she’d found Belly in. Even from here, she could hear the loud cry of insects over the sound of crashing waves.

Breathe in the smell of salt, but also wet sand, growing things, the scent of an abundance of nature. Breathe out the concern of food, or getting sick from living off of fish for too long.

Clapping her hands, she called out to her companions.

“So, despite finally being at an island, it is currently dark, so I say we sleep in the ship tonight the same as usual and then explore in the morning. See if we can find a city in case JJ’s tired of hanging with us already.”

She grinned at Jack to show she meant nothing by it and got an understanding nod in turn. He was only here for as long as he wanted to be, he’d made no promise. Belly also grunted their agreement from their position in the grass, and so they all made their way back onto the ship.

After they spent another ten minutes enjoying the feel of solid ground underfoot.

~JR~

The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon when Lana launched herself back onto the beach, landing in a spray of sand that was immediately dwarfed by Jacks’ own landing which created a wave of sand that bowled her over. Lana pulled herself from the new sandbank sputter and laughing as Jack practically sprinted towards the treeline, she followed after him, whooping along the way, hands in the air.

Belly waited until they were sure no one would be launching sand at them, and only then did they climb off the ship. Even then they couldn’t help the snarl of disgust as they felt sand getting caught in the tufts of hair around its paws.

Quickly, and as careful to avoid submerging their paws in the sand as they could be, they picked their way across the beach, and only relaxed when grass and dirt were underfoot.

Jack had entered the first clearing he’d come across, and simply collapsed face-first into the grass below him, Lana didn’t point out his heaving shoulders or the sounds of gentle sobbing coming from underneath his matted hair, instead, she patted him on his shoulder, and continued deeper into the jungle-like fauna around them. He appreciated the show of support, he also appreciated that he could hear Belly snuffling in the underbrush nearby, but not near enough to really interact with.

Mostly, he appreciated the smell of land, of foliage, the tingle of grass on his skin, of soil under his fingernails, the taste of inedible plant life around him instead of food and salt-spray from the sea.

He rolled over onto his back, linked his fingers behind his head, and stared at a ceiling of life instead of wood or the sky.

After passing JJ by, Lana went on deeper into the forest. She appreciated the fact they were on land, but after two weeks of fishing, her mind was rather stuck on the idea of getting food for her crew. Also, she would kill to eat something beyond a fish, in fact, that was her very plan, a couple of rough wooden ‘spears’ tied together with cord and carried on her back by a small sling.

When she went to make a spear the night before, she wasn’t surprised by the cost, but rather surprised that once crafted it was really more of a sharpened stake a bit longer than she was tall. Still, it would let her kill something in all likelihood, and that’s what she was going for. So that in mind she made four.

Despite the fact that she was technically hunting, she didn’t really try sneaking about or hiding, resolved instead to walk about the place until she found something edible, plant or otherwise, and collect it as she went. Making it a relaxing afternoon stroll.

Or as relaxing as pushing your way through some fairly thick brush and plant life could be.

Stepping over fallen trees or rocks, pushing through hanging vines and large fanned leaves, swatting away one of the many insects that attempted to land on her. More than once while she was ducking under some vines she was jerked backwards when they caught up on her spears. Or maybe it was better to call them javelins, since she mostly planned on chucking them.

Speaking of the hunt, she dropped into a crouch and crept off to the right where she’d heard a brief chattering noise. Sure enough, as she peaked past some ferns she could see a medium-sized clearing, and in it several dog sized lizards sunning themselves on a series of large rocks. The lizards had a yellow back, with a green underbelly and some had a few green stripes. They had small spines running down their backs, with a few larger ones located between their shoulders that seemed to bristle and have some mobility to them.

As she looked them over she considered how to hunt them, if they’d stand and fight since they seemed to live in a group, or at least congregate in a group. Mostly she thought deeply and intently about how edible they might be.

Slowly and gently she reached backed and grabbed one of her spears, pulling it softly from the sling without rattling the other shafts to minimize the noise. She slowly placed that one against a nearby tree, and did the same for two more spears, leaning them all neatly against the same tree.

She pulled the final one from the sling, and held it loosely in her hand, she turned sideways, lining up the shot, she held her arm out fully extended, holding the spear almost at a three quarters point. Eyeing the distance, she adjusted her grip again, and then launched it with a full rotation of her upper body, the spear cut through the air with a whistle, shooting straight for one of the sun bathing lizards.

And missing it by about four feet. She frowned, she’d probably been expecting too much since she’d never actually thrown a weapon before.

She went to grab another to throw, but already the lizard beasties seemed alerted to her presence, probably because of the spear, and they began hissing towards her position, ducking down low to the ground and their spines rattled together ominously. They looked like some sort of cross between a wolf and a Komodo dragon, if she squinted.

Sighing, she grabbed another one of the spears, and then stepped into the clearing, holding the spear over one shoulder with a single hand, she placed her other fist on her hips.

“Ah? That’s all you’ll let me practice? I thought for sure you’d sit there and let me chuck a couple spears before you got violent.”

They responded with a spitting hiss as they began fanning out, slowly trying to surround her. Which meant she was right in assuming they were pack hunters. She sighed.

“I guess I should know better than to try out untested crap in a situation like this. Oh well.”

They fully surrounded her now, and she could practically see the fight playing out in her head, one would jump at her and she’d impale it on her spear, and then swing the spear to send the corpse flying at another one. She’d duck under the third attacker and spin, jabbing the fourth in the throat and leaving it to choke on its own blood.

With a screech one actually did jump at her, mouth of fangs and forelimbs with some wicked looking claws. She gritted her teeth, grabbed her spear at the base with both hands, rotated her upper body with both feet planted solidly. And then she swung her spear like a bat, wrapping the lizard around the shaft of the spear and folding it in half before she sent it careening off into a nearby tree.

_ CRACK _

A drop of sweat slid down her head.

“Ah, that's not what I meant to do.”

The other lizards looked like they were regretting their decisions as she grinned widely.

“Whatever. I’ll just have to make do with what I can do. No more spears for me though.”

She grabbed the spear turned bat and looked to a second lizard, who cowered under her gaze. Briefly, she considered sparing it, it looked so pathetic, and then she remembered the aftertaste of fish still living in her mouth. Instead of sparing it, she drooled, her eyes filled with the images of cooked meat haunches.

“I wonder what you taste like when roasted?”

The other four lizards in the clearing gulped audibly. She laughed.

~JR~

Whistling as she walked, she made her way back through the jungle, towards the general direction she remembered the ship being. She still held the spear over her shoulder, and tied to the end and dangling behind her were the corpses of all five of the lizard things.

In high spirits during her stroll, and the thought of fresh meat that wasn’t fish filling her mind, she nearly missed the small, still form laying nearby under a tree. Her whistle paused, and she cocked a head, it wasn’t large, and whatever it was appeared to be curled up in the shadow, but it was more the now noticeable puddles and splatters of blood near it that set her on edge.

She slid forward lightly, prepared to jump backwards if attacked, but the closeness revealed additional things about it. It was furred, it had blood matted into its fur suggesting it had been injured somehow, and it was… she cocked her head to the side.

“A cat?”

**Author's Note:**

> (Authors note: the intro chapter is from the general perspective of a bear… in case that wasn’t clear. This note is to let you know that generally speaking the story will be told from the perspective of Lana. So, fear not, this isn’t my publishing a first foray into the world of bear-based fiction like you may have feared… or hoped, I don’t judge.)


End file.
